Another Planet

As promised, here is the nature delivery.  Seriously, you're not gonna believe this stuff.

Here is my beautiful back-seat buddy, Miette.

And here we go!

(This is that lumpy earth I was telling you about.)

Also, check the smoke in the background.

Here we go a-geyser-ing!

I have a video of this guy blowing his top, but I can't get it to post here.  It was really something, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Here is the after effect of the spouting, from a distance.

Double, double, toil and trouble...

The following are from the Gullfoss Falls.

The last day, Easter day it was, we went for a long hike to Klambragil, a ravine where hot streams flow into the Reykjadalsa river.  (New fact:  hiking is the best cure for a hangover.  Think about it--the fresh air, the walking to get the blood moving, the beautiful surroundings to take your mind off of how absolutely terrible you feel because you were up until 4:30 am talking and drinking with one of your dearest friends on earth.  Try it!)

Anyway, there was some bitching and moaning at first.  And then there was some slip-sliding and some km-marker questioning and lots of muddy feet.  But then we all found our strides (or fell on our butts) and were straight INTO IT.

This one's stolen from Melora's FB.  She puts it best when she says something about it looking like we are out shopping on the face of the moon.

We pushed on, wondering what exactly the payoff would be.  We were promised hot springs, but just what would they be like?  Could we actually get in?  Would we want to?

And then, we came to this.

DAY-UM.

Now that is amazing.

We found our own spot, stripped down to our suits and eased ourselves in.  (These springs were H-O-T.)  

Here's B showing you how it's done.  Pretty incredible to be half-nekkid (and totally comfortable) with snow still on the ground.  When we got out, our body temps were so up that we didn't have to rush out of our wet suits.  Side note: maintaining "decency" while getting back into dry (un-muddied) clothes is a talent ingrained in us Americans.  Most everyone else lets it all hang out, I'll tell you.  And when you see that, you start to care less about anyone else noticing you.  Still, I kept it classy.

We were super hungry after our hike/hot springs adventure.  We went to a delightful local spot on our way back.  They were offering some beautiful sandwich cakes, which are an Easter specialty in Iceland.  (Check the link, though, apparently the Swedes totally win at this game!)  We tried one of the sandwich cakes, but took some geothermally cooked chicken for our main.  Noms!

Here is the geothermal cooking unit.  So dope!
I read that they also bake bread by burying it and giving it 24 hours or so for the geothermal heat to bake and caramelize it.  Amazing!